In the Loop: Stroke ‘can happen to anyone’ — a young mom’s story

August 28, 2018

When Kevin Duane learned his wife, Alyssa, didn't show up for work, he knew something was wrong. What he didn't know was that someone so young and healthy could have a stroke.

When Kevin Duane learned his wife, Alyssa, hadn't shown up for work or dropped off their 11-month-old daughter at the babysitter's, he called her to check in. What he heard on the other end of the line terrified him. "I could hear some breathing and then I could hear some maybe moaning or grunts. That's when I knew something was very wrong," Kevin tells CBS-47 TV in Jacksonville, Florida. He called a neighbor and asked him to check on Alyssa, then he jumped in his car.

Kevin's mind went to some dark places during the drive home, but he was shocked when he learned what had happened. Alyssa had experienced a stroke and collapsed on the kitchen floor, where she lay for four hours — her daughter snuggled up by her side — before paramedics summoned by her husband broke down the door and took her to the hospital. There, doctors determined her stroke was caused by "a tear in an artery that blocked the blood supply to her brain," according to the Florida Times-Union.

Alyssa was 28, a marathon runner, and had no family history or risk factors. "I didn't ever think stroke was a possibility," Kevin tells the publication. "She lives a very healthy life, eats good foods, goes to the doctor regularly, exercises. She is, in my opinion, the picture of health. How does someone like that have a stroke?" Read the rest of the story.___________________________This story originally appeared on the In the Loop blog.